Update (6/19): Amazing how much can change in one day...yesterday I FOIA'd 119 boxes of material. 119. Just about everything I tried to access yesterday (from State Dept. records on refugees to Congressional files) was still classified. Lovely. Setting aside the issue of State granting my request, every single file would have to be screened before I could see it. Chances I see these boxes before I finish my Ph.D.? Slim. (Granted if there was an actual list of boxes, rather than just a collection description, I wouldn't have had to request all 119 boxes - I probably wouldn't have had to request more than 20 or so, but since there isn't, there's no way to know. What a wonderful catch-22.)
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I filed my first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) today. The request was surprisingly easy – I just had to fill out a brief form with the location and description of the documents (indicated by a slip of paper in the archival file, stating that the documents had been removed for security reasons,) and my contact information. No reason needed or requested. They are required to respond in writing within six weeks, though this doesn’t mean that I’ll actually get the documents.
For some reason filing this request made me very happy. We’ll see what happens…
2 comments:
My Dad, who is always interested in my work, asked me if I was going to fill out any of these forms this summer. When I told him no, he was extremely disappointed.
Anyway, I bet Mr. Wolgin is proud.
We've emailed about this once before, but remind me that we should talk about this again once you return... maybe together with my hubbie since he handles FOIA for govt agency and may have more ideas about what to do.
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